Becky’s Albertsons trip or “How to work these store promos to your advantage”

Becky sent me details on her fabulous trip to Albertsons and I definitely wanted to share with you, as she really worked a few store promos to maximize her savings.

She started out purchasing $200 in gift cards and was able to score two $20 Albertsons catalinas (I believe this deal ends 6/21). Her store let her use both $20 catalinas in the same day, but in different transactions.

Total spent: $.45 + she still has a $2 catalina to use on her next trip

Becky said her second transaction was to get items that she needed but doesn’t generally have coupons for. This is a FANTASTIC way to make these store promotions work for you. There are going to be items that we just can’t get for free or super cheap, but she was able to find a way to save big.

She is also wondering if anyone has suggestions on how to save money on shortening. I NEVER see coupons for it and I really don’t have any good tips.

Thank you so much for sharing Becky!

If you want to see how Angela of Frugal Living NW purchased $3000 in gift cards and is now trying to spend some serious dough in a very short amount of time, click here.

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Not that this helps right now but check for shortening sales or on clearance after holidays. After Christmas (I think), Albertsons had a whole cart full of 3 packs of Crisco bars (which I sometimes like better than scooping it out of the tub) for $1.25. Seemed like a good deal to me. I made sure I was stocked up enough to last me a year (or more).

Albertsons is running a promo through today where you buy $100 in select gift cards (Home Depot, Lowe’s, Amazon) and receive a $20 catalina coupon to use at Albertsons. The catalina is basically just like cash or a gift card, can be used on most items that Albertsons sells.

I don’t mean to be persnickety but it may be a little confusing to coupon-newbies to say she only spent .45 out of pocket when to start this whole shopping trip she had to buy $200 worth of gift cards.

I see where you are coming from Angie, …but in defense of what I did here goes…I am not one to just buy gift cards for the sake of getting $20.00 back, but we have major yard work and a few rentals that need things done, so I thought if we are going to be going to Home Depot anyway, why not get gift cards for HD and also get some groceries for the same price. I also sweetened the deal buy using coupons and combining the $5.00 off $25.00 with my twenty dollars, in essence I turned the $40.00 into $50.00. Non sale/no coupons my OOP would have been around $96.00. I was a bit disappointed that the ad was not that great this week, so my money did not go as far as I had hoped, but I am still pretty pleased. Also as stated in the title, this was to show how to stretch those $20.00, as I know from reading various blogs, there are a lot of people buying the gift cards. This was not a post on how to only spend $.45 cents for about $100.00 of regular priced items. Thanks Melody for posting this, I love your blog!

I did mention in the beginning that she purchased $200 in gift cards, but you do make a valid point. I assumed that Becky (and most people) only bought gift cards for things they would have purchased anyway. I struggled with deciding what to buy (or to buy any at all) because I wanted to be 100% sure I wasn’t spending money wastefully.

Welcome to This Beautiful Frugal Life!

Hi! I'm Melody from Tri-Cities, WA, the mother of two young boys and passionate about getting fit, eating healthy and saving money. I am dedicated to helping you live a fabulous life for less and hope you will join me on this journey!